Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com.
Today let's look at the best anti-virus software for your Mac.
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So I often get asked what's the best anti-virus software for the Mac.
A lot of times people say I just don't feel comfortable not running anti-virus software
or my company says I have to have it on my computer.
So what should I get.
You're not really looking for anti-virus software.
You're looking for anti-malware software.
A virus is just one type of malware and it's rare today.
Most malware today are trojans.
These are pieces of software that you install yourself because you've been tricked into
downloading software from a site you shouldn't trust.
Sometimes that software itself is malware.
Sometimes the malware comes along for the ride when you install the software.
Now you want to prevent that malware from getting on your Mac.
So what software should you install.
The good news is that the best software for the job is already on your Mac.
It's included as part of Mac OS.
For years now Apple has include anti-malware software built into the operating system.
They don't talk about this much because, of course, they don't want to publicize that
part of it.
They don't want to talk about how there are trojans out there for the Mac.
They just quietly built it into the operating system and it protects you.
Now this protection software is in three parts.
The first part is called Gatekeeper except you won't find something called Gatekeeper
anywhere on your Mac anymore.
If you go to Apple menu, System Preferences and then you go to Security & Privacy and
you look under General there's a section here called Allow Apps downloaded from.
Years ago they actually had a little icon there and they called this gatekeeper.
So that's what people refer to it as.
Now it's just some settings here.
You can't even actually change them unless you authenticate and then you have two options.
You can only allow apps to be installed from the App Store or you can allow apps from the
App Store and from identified developers.
Beyond these two options you do actually have the ability to install any software you want
as long as you give it permission.
So this is like your first line of defense.
If an app is in the App Store then it was submitted by an identified developer with
a developer account with Apple and Apple reviewed it before they allow it in the App Store.
It's not a perfect system but it does allow Apple to check for a lot of things including
whether it presents a security or privacy vulnerability and just some quality guidelines
that Apple has.
If there are problems Apple can actually pull it out of the App Store and take away the
developer's ability to produce new apps in the App Store or even as assigned developer.
Even if the app is from outside the App Store if it's an assigned app, that means the developer
is part of the Apple Developer Program.
There's been some identification checks and Apple can revoke that.
So there's some level of security with just signing an app.
So Gatekeeper is kind of a gateway system.
It just prevents things from getting installed.
So if you're not that tech savvy then you should definitely set it at the lowest level
and have it only allow apps from the App Store.
Even if you set it to the other one you should always question whether or not you really
need an app and whether you really trust the site that you're downloading from.
If there's any question just don't do it.
The next part of Apple's Anti-malware system is called XProtect.
You won't find any mention of it anywhere official either.
It's built into Mac OS and you can actually check to see that it's there and that it's
been updated.
So what XProtect does is it prevents you from installing some of the worst pieces of malware
out there.
It does this in the same way antivirus software works.
It has these little identifiers that identify if a piece of software is bad and it will
then prevent it from being installed.
You can check in the Apple menu About This Mac, click on System Report, and then look
on the list on the left and go, Under Software, to Installations.
Then you're going to get this long list.
If you look all the way under XProtect you'll find a bunch of XProtect plist ConfigData
entries.
The most recent one is the one that you want.
You can see right here that version 2102 installed on April 19th.
Now if you want you can actually find XProtect just to see that it's there.
So in the Finder choose Go and then choose Computer.
Dig down into your hard drive, then System, and then Library.
Under there look for Core Services.
Look there and you'll find one called XProtect.
If I Control click on it and say Show Package Contents, I can look in Contents, Resources,
and I can see a XProtect plist and an XProtect meta plist.
Under meta I can see here in the little preview that the version is 2102 right there.
Under the other one I can open it up just by hitting the spacebar and look at it in
QuickLook.
You can see all these different definitions for different pieces of malware.
So if I look for something like a dictionary entry here under description I can see in
the string there's the name of it.
If you actually search for that online you might find a little bit about that piece of
malware.
Here's another one and here's another one.
All right.
So Gatekeeper prevents you from installing something that you probably shouldn't.
XProtect is the next line of defense making sure that even if you give it permission it's
not going to let you install some of the worst malware out there.
What's beyond that?
Well, there's something called MRT which is the malware removal tool.
This is an app that's on your Mac that will actually remove pieces of malware.
You can also find that if you go to About This Mac and then System Report and then look
under Installations.
You'll find MRTconfigdata and a version number there and the last updated date.
In the Finder if you go into your Computer and then System and then Library and then
from there you also look in Core Services that's where you'll actually find MRT.
So how do you run MRT.
Well, you don't and it's kind of a mystery as to when it runs.
Some people say it runs every time you reboot your Mac.
If you have malware if you simply do a restart of your Mac it may get rid of it because MRT
will trigger then.
Other people say it runs whenever there's an update.
So you do an update and then it will run and scan your drive and then look for that malware
and remove it.
Now to keep XProtect and MRT updated make sure that under System Preferences and Software
Update click on the Advance button.
Make sure you have Install System Data Files and Security Updates checked.
So that's Apple's three part anti-malware system built into Mac OS.
It won't protect you from everything.
You can still go to a site that you probably shouldn't, download a piece of software that
you definitely shouldn't, install it and give it permission to install, and then you might
be stuck with something like some adware that actually shows ads or changes how Safari searches
and things like that.
So you can still be the weak link here.
Only install software that you're absolutely sure you need and it's from a site or service
that you know you can trust.
Always keep your Mac updated.